Disney’s Pixar has just released this new trailer to “Inside Out” and we must say this dinner table scene seems all too familiar. Watch and laugh at this hilarious clip of what goes on inside the minds of a typical teenage girl.

We here at Project Inspired want to guide and inspire teen girls to be true to themselves and to God. We want to show young girls how to be people of value and confidence – how to be your own best selves – through leading a Christian life. Who are we? We're a team of girls, like you. We edit the site, we post to social media, we hang out in the chat rooms and forums. We talk with you, we listen to you, and we love you!

11 COMMENTS

At first glance, this movie looks incredibly funny and adorable. But something nagged on my conscience when I first watched the trailer, and again when I watched it above. I couldn’t put a finger in what it was.
Until my mother said something.
Take notice of the little figure for anger: Short, red, business man.
Disgust: Pretty normal hair cut, mixed outfit, neckerchief for emphasis.
Fear: Thin, wobbly, nerdy looking outfit.
Sadness: Fat, shy, out-of-fashion clothing, large glasses, nerdy girl.
Joy: Spunky hair cut that girls are all over today, thin.

I was appalled and disgusted. They are pinning nerdy and geeky people as weaklings, introverts. They are posing men who work as angry jerks, and snobby people as the ones who dress differently. And of course, the happy likable people are the skinny ones.
This is the most blatant stereotyping in something kids consume I’ve seen.

So when you go to watch this, by yourself or with friends and family, be mindful that this is stereotyping, and you will most likely unconsciously start to think that way.

While it has some stereotyping involved, please keep in mind that perhaps the person who originally created the idea is following what he or she came up with when they imagined this. I don’t know about you, but I’m an author (or at least aspiring to be), and one time I tried very hard to avoid stereotypes like the plague. And then suddenly I realized that no matter how I tried, avoiding stereotypes wasn’t going to work. It either greatly impacted the original concept (which, to me, is more important than the characters themselves in most genres) or resulted in very one-sided characters, because no matter what a dynamic character is going to be seen as some sort of stereotype for something. So now I go with the flow, as most artists/writers do. Sometimes my characters are the epitome of stereotypical; sometimes they aren’t, but almost always they’re unique to my style of writing because I don’t tweak them to appease the critical masses.

So, what I’m saying is that perhaps, in this two minute clip, these characters are remote stereotypes. That doesn’t mean they will be for the full extent of the film, though (after all, what’s the fun of a Pixar film with no character development?) and obviously the developers felt that the story was good enough to put on the big screen, and either felt that tweaking the characters would influence the story or that it simply wasn’t as important 🙂

I think that what the writers had in mind when creating these characters is to portray the emotions themselves, not the people who experience those emotions. Just because someone is sad or fearful doesn’t mean that they are “fat”, or “thin” and “wobbly” respectfully. The reason why the characters portray these distinct looks is because that is what the emotion feels like. When you are happy, you feel great and spunky and popular because that’s the emotion you are experiencing. On the other hand, when you feel fearful, you feel small and weak, because that’s just how you feel when you are afraid. When you are sad you don’t feel the same as when you are happy, so why should the two characters look alike or similar? I think you are looking a little too deep into this and missing the point that the writers are trying to make by creating these characters the way that they are. It’s impossible to stereotype this way that you are accusing because human beings do not experience one emotion only. Plus some of these stereotypes that you are writing about are not making sense to me. I didn’t know that short people being angry was a stereotype? Or that hairstyle and clothes could be assigned an emotion. I mean it’s just hair and clothes and it’s based on personal preference and the fact that you want to deem certain clothes or hairstyles as being nerdy or plain seems more judgmental than the rest of the trailer, to be honest. All I’m saying is that I think you are taking this too seriously and missing the point. Anyways, I can’t wait to see this movie and I think it’s a brilliant idea. So excited!

This concept reminds me of the film that won the Christian Worldview Film Festival last year, “The War Within,” which was a really interesting independent Christian film that I personally enjoyed. Instead of emotions, they had what they called the members of the soul – Heart, Mind, Will, Conscience, Emotion, and Memory. I’m just glad it came out first so no one will accuse them of stealing the idea. 😛

Anyway, this looks like a fun movie and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

This is one of the movies on my “Movies to See” list, along w/ Insurgent (Divergent fan!), Mockingjay Part 2, the remake of Annie, and that Cinderella movie 😀 If they’re coming out w/ the live-action Beauty and the Beast film next yr. (feat. Emma Watson as Belle) , I would also love to go see that.

Project Inspired

We here at Project Inspired want to guide and inspire teen girls to be true to themselves and to God. We want to show young girls how to be people of value and confidence – how to be your own best selves – through leading a Christian life. Who are we? We're a team of girls, like you. We edit the site, we post to social media, we hang out in the chat rooms and forums. We talk with you, we listen to you, and we love you!